News

The National Park Service (NPS) announced Wednesday that the Ohanapecosh Campground will remain closed through the 2025 visitor season as part of a multipart plan to improve infrastructure in Mount Rainier National Park.

In a news release, the NPS said the Ohanapecosh Campground rehabilitation project includes improving the park’s 185 campsites and nine bathrooms, replacing an aging wastewater collection system, upgrading electrical and water systems and other infrastructure improvements.

During the work, the campground and all associated structures will be closed to the public. The work is expected to be completed in time for the 2026 camping season.

Both the White River Campground and Cougar Rock Campground will remain open during the construction project.

Between April and October, the NPS will also repair a 2.8-mile section of state Route 123, during which drivers can expect delays of up to 30 minutes. In September 2025, the NPS will also close state Route 123 between Stevens Canyon Road and Panther Creek, during which there will be no vehicle, pedestrian or bicycling access.

The roadway will also be under construction between April and October 2026, when drivers can again expect delays of up to 30 minutes. A complete closure will not be necessary in 2026.

“We are grateful to have the opportunity to make much-needed improvements to the Ohanapecosh Campground and state Route 123,” NPS Superintendent Greg Dudgeon said in a statement. “There will be some temporary inconveniences next year, but we know that this critical investment in our facilities will help ensure recreational opportunities for visitors for decades to come.”

The unemployment rate in Lewis County ticked up to 4.8% in October, according to the Washington Employment Security Department. The rate is a slight increase from the 4.7% the county saw in September.

On Tuesday, the agency announced that across the state, the economy decreased by 2,000 jobs in October, though the statewide rate remained steady at 4.8%.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the unemployment rate nationwide sat at 4.1% in October, with 7 million people unemployed and 1.0 million filing for unemployment.

According to the state Employment Security Department, the largest job gains statewide in the past year occurred in health services and social assistance, education and health services and government.

Between October 2023 and October 2024, Washington added 30,200 jobs in the private sector and 14,500 jobs in government.

Across Southwest Washington, Thurston County reported a 4.2% unemployment rate, Skamania County saw a rate of 4.6%, Pierce County reported a 4.8% rate, Cowlitz County saw a 4.9% rate, Grays Harbor County was at 6.3%, Pacific County was at 5.9% and Wahkiakum County was at 6.5%.

CENTRALIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

Malicious mischief

• Damage to a business in the 300 block of East Summa Street reported at 8:20 a.m. on Nov. 18 is under investigation. “It appears someone attempted to cut through the side of the building to gain entry,” the Centralia Police Department stated in a news release.

Vehicle accidents

• A non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported at the intersection of East Summa Street and Kresky Avenue at approximately 9:45 a.m. on Nov. 18.

• A minor, non-injury, two-vehicle collision was reported at the intersection of West Fifth and North Pearl streets at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 19.

Hit-and-run

• A hit-and-run reported in the 1100 block of Mellen Street just after 8:25 a.m. on Nov. 19 is under investigation.

Burglary

• A burglary of a storage shed in the 1400 block of Kresky Avenue was reported at 3:55 p.m. on Nov. 18.

• A burglary of a business in the 1200 block of Harrison Avenue reported just before 9:35 a.m. on Nov. 19 is under investigation.

Assault

• An unknown male subject was arrested and booked into the Lewis County Jail for third-degree assault for allegedly spitting on an officer in the 100 block of South Silver Street just after 10:15 a.m. on Nov. 19. The subject reportedly refused to identify himself.

Theft

• A light bar was reported stolen from a vehicle in the 1100 block of Kresky Avenue just after 12:10 p.m. on Nov. 19.

• Items were reported stolen from a bedroom in the 900 block of L Street just before 12:25 p.m. on Nov. 19.

• A 21-year-old Everett man was arrested just before 7 p.m. on Nov. 19 for allegedly stealing from a business in the 1100 block of Harrison Avenue twice in one day.

CHEHALIS POLICE DEPARTMENT

Scams

• A phone scam involving scammers posing as Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputies was reported in the 10 block of Southeast Adams Avenue at 1:35 p.m. on Nov. 18.

• A phone scam involving scammers telling the victim she had felony warrants out for her arrest was reported in the 10 block of Southwest Fourth Street at approximately 2:05 p.m. on Nov. 18.

Malicious mischief

• A second-degree malicious mischief reported in the 1600 block of Northwest Louisiana Avenue at 3 p.m. on Nov. 18 is under investigation.

Criminal trespass

• A subject who was sleeping by the gates of a facility in the 10 block of Southwest Chehalis Avenue just before 5:10 a.m. on Nov. 19 was moved along.

• A subject who was sleeping in the entryway of a business in the 400 block of Northwest Chehalis Avenue at approximately 6:50 a.m. on Nov. 19 was trespassed from the business.

FIRE AND EMS CALLS

• Between Monday morning and Wednesday morning, Lewis County 911 Communications logged approximately 42 illness-related calls, 15 injury-related calls, 14 fire-related calls, two non-emergency service calls, four vehicle accidents, two Lifeline medical alerts, one overdose, one hazardous conditions report and two other calls.

JAIL STATISTICS

• As of Wednesday morning, the Lewis County Jail had a total system population of 152 inmates, including 139 in the general population and 13 in the Work Ethic and Restitution Center (WERC). Of the general population inmates, 113 were reported male and 26 were reported female. Of the WERC inmates, 11 were reported male and two were reported female.

• As of Wednesday morning, the Chehalis Tribal Jail had a total system population of 13 inmates, including six booked by the Centralia Police Department, four booked by the state Department of Corrections, one booked by the Lummi Nation, one booked by the City of Elma and one booked by the Tulalip Tribe.

•••

Sirens are compiled by assistant editor Emily Fitzgerald, who can be reached at emily@chronline.com. The Centralia Police Department can be reached at 360-330-7680, the Chehalis Police Department can be reached at 360-748-8605. If you were a victim of physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence or sexual assault, call Hope Alliance at 360-748-6601 or the Youth Advocacy Center of Lewis County at 360-623-1990.

I waited a bit to comment on the outcome of the election just to see if in fact the world would end if President Donald Trump was reelected.

Nope. At least unless you were one of those so sensitive you needed a safe space, cookies and hot chocolate, or my favorite (from Harvard), Legos. 

For those poor folks, the world apparently did meet its demise.

But apparently about 75 million Americans concluded they were tired of being called stupid, Nazis, racists and all the rest by hysterical media and Hollywood elites and voted for President Trump anyway.

The following Sunday, as has happened many Sundays before and I suspect many more to come, my wife and I even ventured out after church to a restaurant.  We saw a long-time Democrat acquaintance and exchanged our usual pleasantries.

I know this sounds crazy, but we were able to be pleasant and civil despite our differences. It sounds weird, I know, but that’s what normal people do.

So, as the holidays approach, unlike the unhinged liberal knotheads on TV, we plan on spending time with family and friends — even some who think differently than I do. We have no plans to punish them and expect that none will punish me for my voting habits.

If age has taught me anything, it is that time is too short to waste on foolishness like that.

Plus, I don’t want to gloat.

•••

Locally, though, I wasn’t really surprised by any of the results. The only initiative that went my way was the option to use natural gas and the Lewis County 911 tax. Even though I don’t use natural gas now, the option seems reasonable. But, as usual, voters in Washington will be challenged in court by environmentalists to get the court to kill it. Just like school choice, they can’t stand voters deciding because, after all, they know what’s best for us.

The county’s budget woes are still bad, and it’s likely the solutions will be hard, too. Like most budgets, the bulk of it is wrapped up in wages and benefits, so meaningful cuts will result in the loss of jobs or services. 

At the federal level, they just print money and “kick the can down the road” for someone else to deal with. But counties can’t print money, so they have to balance budgets. The reality is we have kicked the can for years, too, using reserves to make up the difference and avoid the painful cuts they face today.

But that can only go so far. Add to that the crazy inflation we have all experienced in the last four years, and that just makes the problem worse.

The clock for a required budget is ticking and, while I can’t recall the exact date, the budget is required to be passed soon. Hiring freezes and attrition through retirements or employees leaving won’t likely make up the difference, so painful decisions will have to be made. It’s likely even going to include essential services.

In just a couple months, our state Legislature will meet and, if I’m not mistaken, they too will face a budget shortage, due in part in my estimation to an ever increasing and unsustainable appetite to spend money. 

I predict there will also be a crime of the session (seems like there always is) or other matters that will affect counties negatively and add to our local problems.

But we’ve seen this before and survived. So, we can choose to be hopeful and work through it, or shrink in fear, which does nothing.

We can learn from history (although I doubt kids are being taught real history anymore) and think like FDR when he said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” He’s right. Fear sells. Fear motivates. But unreasonable fear is destructive.

So while I’m not a psychiatrist and didn’t play one on TV, I choose hope over fear. And Legos, of course.

•••

John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@gmail.com.

Washington’s agriculture is a $12.8 billion business with 33,000 farms — and it runs on gasoline, diesel and natural gas. The thousands of big rigs hauling crops and food products are not electric.

Even though new trucks have reduced CO2 and other pollutants, some politicians are hastily charging ahead to replace fossil-fueled trucks with unproven technology.

According to 2021 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, transportation was responsible for 30 percent of greenhouse gases, of which 80 percent comes from cars and trucks. A quarter of the CO2 emitted in the transportation sector comes from medium and heavy-duty trucks.

Replacing diesel engines in long-haul trucks (Class 8) is expensive and a mammoth task. The Bureau of Transportation estimates there are 4.5 million big rigs operating in the U.S. They are the trucks and trailers we commonly see on our highways carrying cargo hundreds of miles and needing short refueling times — 15 minutes compared to an hour.

Specifically, long-distance haulers need a network of hydrogen fueling stations (like today’s truck stops) along with affordable trucks and fuel. Hub researchers’ added challenge is 95 percent of the hydrogen used in commercial vehicles comes from high-temperature steamed methane where CO2 is released.

Green hydrogen, absent from CO2, uses lots of electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen (electrolysis), but it is expensive. In 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) calculated green hydrogen production costs are more than three times higher when compared to manufacturing methane derived hydrogen.

Our state has an abundance of low-cost hydropower generated primarily by Columbia and Snake rivers dams. Surplus electricity from renewable sources could be directed to electrolysis plants.

For example, Douglas County Public Utility District (PUD) is spending $20 million to build a renewable hydrogen production plant near Wenatchee. It uses surplus power from Wells Dam and was funded by a grant from the Washington Legislature.

Hydrogen and battery powered trucks are expensive to purchase even with Washington state’s commercial vehicle tax credit covering up to $100,000 of the incremental cost for new alternative fuel vehicles. Even with those taxpayer subsidies, those rigs could be beyond what struggling farm families can afford.

According to the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), the purchase price of a Class 8 hydrogen was $359,500, compared to $474,900 for a battery operated, and $143,500 for diesels. The added research should benefit truck manufacturers as well. PACCAR’s Renton plant assembles Kenworth and Peterbilt trucks and Oregon is where Daimler Portland’s factory makes Freightliners.

Nikola Motors, a U.S. maker of hydrogen trucks, claims its vehicles get 12 to 15 miles per gallon (mpg), well above the average 6.4 mpg for a diesel truck. Two years ago, Nikola Motors, based in Phoenix, announced it launched a roadmap for 700 fueling stations across our country.

European Union leaders are already investing heavily in hydrogen fuel research believing it is key to eliminating CO2 discharges from vehicles.

For example, one innovative technology is called pyrolysis. Hopefully, it will allow Europeans to pipe hydrogen as natural gas now travels long distances across the country and under water. Hydrogen created by pyrolysis is an adaptation of an industrial process developed over the years. It was designed to remove CO2 from the process by creating charred wood and organic matter.

Developing hydrogen into a commercially viable fuel takes money — lots of it. Europeans are relying on hydrogen fuel technologies to lead the way to substantial greenhouse gas reductions and a sizable chunk of the European Union’s €11 billion ($13.3 billion) climate initiative centers on hydrogen.

Hopefully, now that hydrogen technology is growing in acceptance, there will be greater attention to accelerating research and development, scaling up production, finding ways to reduce costs, and it will be well-tested before it is mandated.

•••

Don C. Brunell is a business analyst, writer and columnist. He is a former president of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s oldest and largest business organization, and lives in Vancouver. Contact thebrunells@msn.com.

I agree with Washington state Sen. John Braun of the 20th Legislative District in his Nov. 9 op-ed. “Let's go to work!”

Braun has been allowed more than ample space on the opinion pages of The Chronicle to convince the voters to vote yes on all four initiatives on the ballot of the Nov. 5 general election. There is another side to the initiatives than those of Braun.

Take Initiative 2124 to start.

Who isn't going to need long-term health care? A few fortunate folks can afford it but many more can't afford private long-term health care. It seems ironic to me that Braun would prefer the current system. The majority of the folks needing care consistently are being paid for by the taxpayers.

Unfortunately, health care needs to rise to 58 cents per $100 of contributions, which seems like a wise start for a program designed to allow folks to pay into their own health care plan. The center of the broad concerns always seems to be for the saving of the constituents’ hard-earned money, and his plan is the opposite.

He talks of serving the taxpayers, saving the taxpayers money, but not implementing a long-term health care plan that will save the citizens of the state millions of dollars over time.

Regarding Initiative 2109, if passed it would have made approximately 4,000 well-to-do citizens of this state exempt from paying approximately 7% capital gains tax on sales of bonds, stock, etc., of profit over $262,000.

It excludes revenue from real estate plus retirement accounts. Up to $500 million of this tax goes to schools, early learning and child development programs. By approximately 63% to 36%, Washington voters said no to Initiative 2109.

In all of Braun’s op-eds, he never mentioned anything about a millionaire funding the four initiative bills.

The millionaire (Brian Heywood) paid for hundreds of signature gatherers to sometimes misrepresent the intent of the initiatives to voters, entering and exiting many places of business in the state. He only mentioned the well-to-do financing of the “vote no” campaigns on the initiatives.

So please, when given more than ample space to write, try doing a more well-rounded version of what's going on in this state.

Braun also was in favor of Initiative 2117, the cap and tax bill. The intended design was to curb carbon emissions over time.

If we don't think of ways and try to do some emission control soon, then what amount of money will be spent on the warming-caused tragedies all over the world?

And health care costs on top of the catastrophic events.

Again, Braun needs to tell more than one side of the story.

Brian S. Dow

Centralia

The left hates the right and the right hates the left.

There is no middle ground.

I was a Democrat until King Obama and Queen Inslee took office, and then I opened my eyes and became a Republican, never voting blue ever again.

After taking a deep look at myself, I see myself falling into this category of highly not liking the left.

To me, the left seems weak. They cannot describe what a female is, they want males to play against our daughters in sports, they don’t know what bathroom to use, they want our guns and they dictate what kind of vehicles we drive.

The last election proved that voters didn’t like what the left was offering and saw through the lies that were being told.

The voters were pretty loud about it. This is a turning point for our country. I am feeling hope for our country now.

Andrew Boehm

Centralia